Watch live: Rishi Sunak urges parliament to back Rwanda bill ahead of final vote

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Watch live as Rishi Sunak holds a press conference on Monday April 22 to urge his colleagues to support his controversial Rwanda legislation.

The prime minister’s surprise speech comes ahead of the final confrontation of the bill on Rwanda’s security (asylum and immigration) in parliament.

Sunak’s legislation aims to make the plan to send asylum seekers on a one-way ticket to Rwanda legally watertight.

The bill aims to overcome Supreme Court objections by forcing judges to consider Rwanda a safe country for asylum seekers and allowing ministers to ignore emergency orders from the European Court of Human Rights.

However, it has been the subject of extensive parliamentary back and forth, with colleagues repeatedly blocking the bill with a series of amendments.

The government has promised that Parliament will meet until late Monday night if necessary to pass the bill, which it sees as essential to the Prime Minister’s pledge to “stop the boats”.